


Courage

by soulfight



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Best Friends, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Pining, loona radio skit, unrequited but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:02:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23298247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soulfight/pseuds/soulfight
Summary: Jinsol has been in love with Jungeun since forever, but she lacks the courage to confess to her, too worried about ruining their friendship. When a magical shampoo fairy bestows a gift, Jinsol's entire world changes (including the way she looks).Or: Loona radio skit, but make it Lipsoul best friends to lovers.
Relationships: Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul & Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip, Jung Jinsol | Jinsoul/Kim Jungeun | Kim Lip
Comments: 5
Kudos: 145





	Courage

**Author's Note:**

> Guess who's back with another sub-par Lipsoul fic. That's right it's me. I'm obsessed with the Hyunjin x Lip radio skit portion, but I had to make it Lipsoul lol. The bodies Jinsol transforms into are Heejin, Haseul, and Yves. 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy it!! :]

Jinsol never imagined herself to be a victim of unrequited love. Frankly, she thought that sort of angst only ever happened in dramas and movies, but she never imagined herself meeting a person like Jungeun either. They’ve been best friends since that first day on the playground in elementary school. 

__

The buzz of child-like enthusiasm radiates throughout the grounds of Jinsol’s elementary school. After hours of learning the absolute essentials like reading, writing, and math, recess serves as the most deserved break. Jinsol enjoys playing, but school isn’t so bad either. Most of Jinsol’s classmates groan when numbers suddenly appear on the chalkboard, but for Jinsol, it’s the most intriguing subject. Even at this early age, Jinsol appreciates the universality of numbers and the concrete nature of mathematics. She can’t say the same about reading and writing, with rules like “a before e” applying to very specific situations. 

Nonetheless, recess is still her favorite subject despite only starting elementary school a few days ago. It’s the perfect time for her to run around and play. She doesn’t have many friends yet, but she’s eager to make some. 

Jinsol spots a girl sitting at the top of the slide, eyes welling up with tears as people behind her become impatient. She’s not sure why this girl isn’t going down the slide because it’s the most fun part of the whole playground, but Jinsol goes to this girl anyways and tries to help.

“Hi” Jinsol waves as she nears the slide. She can hear the boys groaning, and yelling at this girl to go down and she feels bad. “The slide isn’t scary! I did it yesterday! I can catch you!”

The girl’s fear starts to dissipate, but right as she puts her hands on the sides of the slide, a boy behind her pushes her! Everything moves quickly, but Jinsol manages to cushion the other girl’s fall.

“Hey! You’re a meanie!” Jinsol screams as she points at the boy smirking at the top of the slide. She stands and helps the other girl up as well. “Let’s go.” 

They run to a patch of dandelions by the entrance and Jinsol can’t help but still feel angry at that boy. 

Her thoughts are interrupted when she hears the other girl mutter, “Thank you for catching me.” 

“You’re welcome!” Jinsol responds, she learned to always say ‘please, thank you, and you’re welcome’ in Kindergarten. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Jungeun. Kim Jungeun. What’s your name?” 

“I’m Jinsol! Jung Jinsol!” 

__

The two stay attached at the hip for the remainder of their years in elementary school and for the rest of their time throughout middle school and high school. They even decided to go to the same college and now years later, as juniors preparing to step into the “real world” in only two years' time, they’ve remained the closest of friends. They tell each other everything, except for one small detail. Jinsol is in love with Jungeun. 

She realized this tidbit of information in her freshman year of high school, a week before the homecoming dance. 

__

“That guy from homeroom just asked me to Homecoming,” Jungeun says nonchalantly as they make their way to the bus. Jinsol feels her heart pound and it’s a feeling she hasn’t really felt so strongly before. 

“Who? Did you say yes? How’d he ask? Are you going?” The questions fire out of Jinsol’s mouth and it surprises her. She didn’t know she could speak this fast and she also didn’t know why she was speaking so fast. 

“Jun. Yes. A cheesy sign and yeah I’m going. Aren’t you?”

Jinsol knows what the feeling is now. It’s jealousy, that ugly green monster who doesn’t show up often, but when it does, rears its teeth and makes Jinsol cringe. She doesn’t like feeling this way and she doesn’t even know why she’s jealous in the first place. 

“Oh, well that’s nice. I don’t know...I’ll probably just stay home.” Jinsol starts to walk towards the busses but is pulled back by Jungeun. 

“Are you okay? I know we said we’d go together, but we’ll have a group! You can come with us!”

“I’m fine. This isn’t about Homecoming. I’m just tired. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night.” Jinsol lies and she knows Jungeun can tell, but the other girl doesn’t say anything. They walk off to the busses in an uncomfortable silence they’ve never experienced before. 

Homecoming sneaks up in the blink of an eye and suddenly Jinsol is surrounded by disgusting couples acting more disgusting than usual in the hallways and confetti being thrown in her face every 5 seconds. She’s never wanted to reach the safety of a classroom more. She’s used to walking with Jungeun to every class, but Jungeun had to become friends with all of Jun’s stupid friends and it’s not like they’re even dating. They’re just going as dates to this dance. So now Jinsol is stuck walking to class alone while Jungeun has this huge posse of ‘popular kids’ she goes to class with.

Jinsol thinks the whole thing is dumb. She thinks it’s dumb that Jungeun has had to go shopping for something Homecoming related every day for the past week. She thinks it’s dumb that Jungeun chose to go with Jun rather than with her. She thinks it’s dumb that she has the most heartwrenching, inconvenient, confusing feelings for Jungeun. It’s all just so dumb. 

After barely getting through her first class because of her pure disgust for her fellow classmates and their homecoming fervor (jealousy), Jinsol goes to the nurse and fakes a stomach ache in order to go home for the day. Her mom is upset with her, but she doesn’t have the energy to argue. She wordlessly trudges up to her room and collapses into her bed.

She feels a sad, lonely tear trickle down her face as she falls asleep. 

It’s dark outside when Jinsol wakes up and she’s disoriented. She has no concept of what time it is, but judging by the silence in the house, she’s assuming it’s late. Normally, she would scroll through Instagram, but she knows she’ll see Homecoming pictures and if she sees Homecoming pictures, she knows she’ll see Jungeun and that’s not something she needs right now so she tries to go back to sleep. Just as she’s about to, however, she hears pattering against her window. It’s too sharp and heavy to be raindrops so she leaves the comfort of her bed to check it out. 

Groggily, she pulls the curtains back and to her surprise, it’s Jungeun, throwing pebbles against her window with one hand and holding heels with the other. In an effort to stay quiet, Jinsol motions for Jungeun to go to the front door. 

For the whole 2 minutes she spends walking to the door to let Jungeun in, Jinsol panics. She knows she shouldn’t panic because Jungeun is her best friend, but the other girl was just at Homecoming and for the better part of this week, Jinsol has felt like they were in a fight even though they weren’t. Sure, they’ve walked over to each other’s house late at night when one of them couldn’t sleep, but this felt different.

Jinsol gingerly opens the door, praying her parents don’t wake up. After the fake illness incident this morning, she doesn’t think she can handle another argument with her mom. 

“Hi,” Jungeun says quietly. Her makeup still looks intact and honestly, Jinsol is in awe with how beautiful she looks right now. It’s confusing and she’s kind of upset with Jungeun, but she’s also really beautiful and all Jinsol wants to do is kiss...no hug her. Jinsol shakes the thought as quickly as it comes. 

Clearly, Jungeun has felt the tension between them for the past week. Unlike their usual late-night meet-ups, Jungeun hesitates walking through the door and Jinsol feels bad. She didn’t mean for them to get like this. Her stupid feelings just got in the way. 

“Hi...uh- come in,” Jinsol says as she gestures into the house. The whole exchange feels like one between strangers, not one between two best friends. 

They silently make their way to Jinsol’s room and Jinsol has never been more aware of her hands. She doesn’t want to accidentally brush up against Jungeun, but she also doesn’t want to seem too robotic. She settles on clasping her hands behind her back even though she knows it seems weird. 

Once they’re in the comfort of Jinsol’s room, Jungeun begins speaking immediately. “Are you okay?”

Jinsol has only seen this kind of concern from Jungeun when she tore her knee open trying to do a trick on her Razor scooter. As endearing as it is, she doesn’t want to worry Jungeun any further and decides to lie. She realizes she’s been lying to Jungeun more in the past week than she ever has in their entire friendship. “Yeah I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?”

Jungeun doesn’t buy the lie. Jinsol can tell by the way Jungeun scrunches up her eyebrows, but the other girl doesn’t expose her for it. 

“I don’t know.” Jungeun sighs and pauses for a second before continuing, “you weren’t in bio today.” 

Jinsol realizes that her absence was probably why Jungeun came to check up on her. Maybe she didn’t feel the tension as strongly as Jinsol had for the past week. Feeling a little disappointed, Jinsol can’t control the way her tone sounds. “Yeah. I was a little sick. I’m fine though. Was that it?”

She knows it isn’t fair and she knows she’s hurting Jungeun, Jinsol can see it in her eyes, but she can’t help it. Nothing is fair. She didn’t ask to have feelings for Jungeun. She doesn’t even know if they’re real feelings. She’s confused and tired and just wants to sleep this whole week off. 

“I miss you,” Jungeun says quietly and it hurts, god does it hurt. Jungeun was the one that left her, but Jinsol still feels bad. She shouldn’t be this jealous because her friend went to homecoming with a boy and made new friends. Jinsol knows she’s being selfish and the last thing she wants to do is ruin her friendship with Jungeun. Whatever these feelings are will pass, Jinsol thinks and so she buries said feelings into a corner of her heart and locks it away. 

“I miss you too. Sorry, I’ve been in a weird mood all week.” Jinsol gives Jungeun a small smile. 

Jungeun nods and pulls Jinsol into a hug. The feelings Jinsol locked away threaten to jump out, but she represses them. “I’m sorry I went to homecoming without you. We should’ve gone together. I regret going with Jun.” 

“No, it’s okay! We have three more homecomings! It’s not that big of a deal.” Jinsol says as she breaks the hug. 

“It is though. I know it made you upset and don’t lie because you are a horrible liar.” Jungeun says sternly, taking a seat on Jinsol’s bed.

Jinsol quietly laughs as she takes a seat beside Jungeun. Jungeun knows everything about her so of course, she knows when Jinsol is lying. “Well, you did choose some weird boy over your best friend. What happened to ‘chicks before dicks’?”

“Aw, Sollie was jealous,” Jungeun says, lightly pinching Jinsol’s cheek. Jinsol swats the other girl’s hand away. You have no idea, Jinsol thinks. “Don’t worry Sol, you’re my best friend forever.”

In a fit of insecurity, Jinsol asks for reassurance, “promise?”

“Pinky promise.” Jungeun reaches her pinky out to seal the deal to which Jinsol happily reciprocates. Best friends forever.

“So are you spending the night?”

“Yeah. I kind of already told my mom I would.” Jungeun says sheepishly.

“What if I suddenly hated you and kicked you out?” Jinsol jokes.

Jungeun lightly punches her in the arm, “well I guess I’d spend the night at Jun’s.” 

Jinsol knows she’s kidding so it doesn’t hurt as bad, but she still feels something sharp in her heart. She goes to bed burying her feelings further and further. This crush, or whatever it is, will go away in no time.

__

The crush doesn’t go away. In fact, it turns into something far scarier. Love. It’s not that Jinsol is afraid of love, but she’s more afraid of confessing. She’s afraid of ruining her solid friendship over some stupid feelings. Jungeun means the world to her and if Jinsol has to go the rest of her life idly standing by with her feelings just to make sure they’re best friends forever, she will. 

But on the other hand, keeping her growing feelings concealed is exhausting, if not the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. Sometimes she wishes she could just confess. Life certainly would be easier without that sliver of hope she feels whenever she thinks about her future with Jungeun, but she is the biggest coward she knows and she knows she’ll never have the courage to confess. It would take some sort of miracle to get that to happen. 

So Jinsol lies awake in her one-person dorm room, something she’s become far too accustomed to. Jungeun had asked to share a room with her before the school semester, but she’s been suffering for years and Jinsol won’t make her situation worse if she can help it. 

Feeling even more tragic than usual, Jinsol makes her way to the showers. There are only two things that can put at least a single second of pause on her feelings and that’s either visiting the marine animals on campus or taking a piping hot shower. It’s 3 am and the facilities are closed so she opts for the latter. 

She thinks about how nice it would be to have the courage to just confess, knowing her feelings will never go away. 

“Hi!” 

Jinsol screams, clamoring to the floor. She’s glad she hasn’t undressed yet otherwise this would be even more awkward than it already is. It’s past 3 am why on earth is this girl awake?! Why is she so cheerful this late at night? 

“God. You scared me! Who are you?” Jinsol questions, still on the floor. 

“I’m a fairy and this” the strange girl pauses to materialize what looks to be a bottle of shampoo, “is a gift for you!”

“A gift? It’s...a bottle of shampoo?” Jinsol says as she takes the shampoo from the fairy’s hands.

“Yup! This is going to be essential for you.” The fairy says with a smile. 

“But I have shampoo already! I’m about to take a shower...and you’re a stranger!”

“Good luck!” The fairy disappears as quickly as she appeared in front of Jinsol.

Jinsol wonders what just happened and whether or not it was a dream. Logically, she should just throw the bottle away, but she is a broke college student. A free bottle of shampoo couldn’t hurt. 

Jinsol takes her shower using the new shampoo and thanks to this magic fairy when she’s settled in bed, she thinks about how strange that whole situation was instead of what Jungeun’s eyes look like in the sunlight (she dreams about it though). 

__

Jinsol awakes to her blaring alarm. Going to sleep at 4 am with a 9 am class is definitely not her smartest decision, but she can’t skip class. Her professors are bound to mark down her grade for lack of attendance.

Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, Jinsol walks over to her mirror, but what she finds nearly scares her to death. If it weren’t for the fact that she most certainly had sleeping neighbors, she surely would have screamed. 

“Who are you?” Jinsol asks in a panic, but the reflection moves with her. She rubs her eyes hoping it’s just sleep deprivation, but the stranger is still trapped in her mirror.

“Is this me?” Jinsol asks herself, poking at her cheeks. How could her whole appearance change? She has a beauty mark under her eye now and she’s shorter. Did she eat something bad yesterday? Maybe she was poisoned, but that would’ve killed her. 

“Wait a minute…” Jinsol mutters to herself. She remembers the fairy from last night and the shampoo she was given. Jinsol wonders just what was in that shampoo. She hurries to the shampoo sitting on her desk and reads the label. 

“For you, the one without courage. Magic, organic shampoo. It contains 180-degree transformation technology. Destroy your over-secreted timidity...” What in the world, Jinsol thinks. 

__

Jinsol tried everything, from splashing her face with warm water to getting in the shower again just to wash out the remnants of any shampoo that might’ve remained, but nothing worked. She was truly transformed into another girl. 

As she sits on her bed, Jinsol tries to think about how she can make the most of this situation. Then, it hits her. She’s no longer Jung Jinsol. Well, she is, but she isn’t! She looks completely different and maybe this is her chance to confess to Jungeun. She doesn’t have to risk her friendship, because Jungeun won’t know it’s her! 

Thrilled with her new plan, Jinsol feels content and ready to go to her classes today. She already missed her first one, but she can make it to the rest.  
__

Upon entering the academic building, Jinsol spots a couple of her friends by the cafe, but she remembers she’s not herself anymore. To avoid being seen, Jinsol hurries past them only to trip and fall, scraping her knee. She really does have to get better balance skills. 

Before she can make it to her feet again, Jungeun approaches her and offers a hand to assist her. “Hey…”

“Oh hey! Hi!” Jinsol wonders if Jungeun knows it’s her. 

“Your knee is bleeding,” Jungeun says before taking her backpack off. She starts to rummage through it and Jinsol wonders what she’s looking for. 

As she’s rifling through her bag, Jinsol takes a look at her knee. It’s not too bad of a cut, but she should put some ointment on it. Who knows what’s been on these floors. “Yeah I guess so, but it doesn’t hurt at all!” 

Jungeun looks up at her for a second with a small smile before looking through her backpack again. “I’ve never seen you before. Are you a junior?”

“Uh- yeah!”

Jungeun finally finishes looking through her bag and pulls out Neosporin and a band-aid. “Here you go!”

“Oh- thank you! You carry this stuff around with you?” Jinsol asks as she takes the Neosporin and band-aid from Jungeun’s hands. She quickly patches herself up and hands the Neosporin back to Jungeun. 

“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared! Anyways, what’s your name?”

“Ah, my name is Jinsol. Jung Jinsol.” In hindsight, maybe she should’ve used a different name, but it’s like meeting Jungeun all over again and she wants just a little tiny piece of herself to experience it if her whole being can’t. 

“Jung Jinsol? Huh, I know someone just as clumsy as you…” Jungeun mutters and if Jinsol wasn’t latched onto every word that came out of Jungeun’s mouth she would’ve missed it. “Your name suits you.” 

Jinsol can’t fight the blush that creeps up onto her face. “No one’s ever told me that before. Thanks.” 

“You're welcome,” Jungeun says with a laugh. “Well, I’ll get going now. See you around!” 

Jinsol stays frozen like that for a bit, in awe with Jungeun’s kindness. She didn’t just get to meet Jungeun again, but she got to fall in love with her again too. 

Realizing her attendance in class won’t matter because her professors won’t know it’s her, Jinsol decides to go back to her room. She emails her professors telling them that she has the flu. They all seem to buy it and tell her that they’ll email the lectures to her at the end of each day. 

When Jinsol gets back to her room, she’s overcome with the effects of sleep deprivation and decides to take a nap but is woken up to incessant notifications coming from her phone. Jungeun has been texting her non-stop, asking her where she’s been and if she’s alright. She even sent a text saying she was going to go over to her room if Jinsol doesn’t respond. 

Wanting to avoid the confusion of Jungeun finding a random girl in her room (even though it’s her), Jinsol tells her she’s really sick and doesn’t want to infect Jungeun. This only makes Jungeun want to visit her more in order to take care of her, but Jinsol insists, even threatening to not talk to her if she does (they both know it’s an empty threat, but it works). Still, an hour later, she gets a knock on her door and hears the stomping of retreating footsteps. 

When Jinsol opens the door, she sees a small care package of microwaveable soups, a teddy bear, some tea packets, and a note. 

"Because you’re being really annoying right now...I’m leaving you this. Get better soon, loser. The teddy bear is so you can cuddle with it because I know you’ll miss me while you’re sick.  
\- Jungeun."

Jinsol wonders how she got so lucky to have a person like Jungeun in her life. 

__

After taking a shower, using that magic shampoo, Jinsol goes to sleep cuddling the teddy bear close to her chest. 

__

Jinsol wakes to her blaring alarm clock. She figures she should just turn it off at this point. She heads over to her mirror, half expecting to look like the girl from yesterday, but yet again, she looks like a completely different person. Her hair is somehow in a bob cut now. 

After getting ready, Jinsol figures she’ll catch the bus to the southside of campus for some food. She could have the soup Jungeun left her, but she’s craving a smoothie. 

__

When she gets to the stop, she sees Jungeun, but she should already be in a class by now. Jinsol, feeling braver than usual, decides to approach Jungeun. 

“Hi!” Jinsol says with a smile. 

Jungeun looks around confused. “Are you saying hi to me?” 

“Yeah!” Jinsol replies and she fights a smile from forming on her face as Jungeun’s eyebrows knit together.

“But I’ve never met you before? Oh- do we share a class together?”

“Yeah. Why are you late today? Don’t you have a 9 A.M class?” Jinsol asks curiously.

“I overslept today,” Jungeun says with a shrug. “ Have we ever met before? Because you’re kind of acting like we’re friends so I’m a little confused.” 

Jinsol finds it cute how apologetic Jungeun is. She really is the kindest person. 

“I’ve seen you on this bus a couple of times!” Jinsol says with a smile. 

Jungeun nods in understanding, “so what’s your name?”

“Oh- my name’s Jung Jinsol.” 

Jungeun tilts her head to the side, a little confused, “your name is Jung Jinsol too? Wow, there’s a lot of Jinsols at this school.” 

“I know, right? Oh, by the way, I hear from a lot of people on campus that you’re really popular!” Jinsol doesn’t know where this is coming from, but maybe that shampoo really is giving her courage. 

“Really?” Jungeun asks, shocked. 

“Yeah! Everyone has a crush on you.”

Jungeun shakes her head in disbelief, but smiles. “No. That’s not true. No one does.” 

“Well...I like you.” 

“Wait, what?”

Jinsol can see the shock on her face. To Jungeun, this is a stranger, but to Jinsol, this is her confessing her feelings. It’s relieving, almost therapeutic. 

“A lot of my friends say they have a crush on you too!” 

“Oh really? I don’t think she does though…” Jungeun mutters, and like the last time, Jinsol catches it. 

“Oh? Who?” Jinsol asks curiously. Maybe if she just found out who Jungeun wants to have a crush on her, she’ll be able to move on. 

“It doesn’t matter! Oh- the bus is coming. Let’s go.” Jungeun starts walking over to the bus and Jinsol feels herself falling further. 

She remembers in high school when they talked about crushes for the first time after Jinsol’s revelation and how different it was from this conversation.  
__

“I hear Jun has a raging crush on you after you stole his heart last year during homecoming,” Jinsol says, sneaking up on Jungeun who’s grabbing books out of her locker. 

Jungeun jumps and whacks Jinsol on the arm, “you scared me! And yeah I heard that too. It doesn’t matter though.”

“Why’s that? You like someone else or something?” Jinsol asks jokingly. 

Jungeun shuts her locker and turns around with a smile on her face. “Yeah, actually.”

“Really? Who?” Jinsol ignores the pain in her chest. 

“Dong-Sun” Jungeun says in a whisper. 

Jinsol stops herself from rolling her eyes. He’s the classic senior jock, captain of the football team. It’s like everyone and their damn mothers have a crush on this guy. Jinsol just doesn’t see it. “Ah- well isn’t he seeing Seoyeon?” 

“Yeah, but a girl can dream. Anyways, what about you? Do you have a crush?”

You, Jinsol thinks but holds her tongue. “No. Not really interested in anyone right now, the boys here kind of suck.” 

Jungeun laughs and nods in agreement before linking her arm with Jinsol’s to walk to class. 

Jinsol holds herself back from telling Jungeun about how she has feelings for girls, well only one girl, but a girl nonetheless. Lying is easier when it’s masked under deception rather than outright lies. 

__

It’s the end of the day when Jinsol gets a notification on her phone from Jungeun asking her how she’s doing. After lying, saying she still feels horrible, Jungeun sends her a sad emoji and asks if she still doesn’t want her to come over. 

With the way Jinsol looks right now, she definitely can’t have Jungeun come over so she tells Jungeun that they can hang out when she’s healthy again. 

An hour later, like yesterday, there’s a knock at her door, and she knows it’s Jungeun leaving another care package. Jinsol smiles like an idiot as she picks up her newest gifts. It’s a fish plushie with some more soup, vitamin C chews, and another note. 

"Day 2 of not seeing my best friend I think you should be the one sending me stuffed animals. JK :P Hurry up and get better! Also, take the vitamin chews and please make sure to eat!  
-Jungeun"

Jinsol feels bad because she isn’t actually sick, but Jungeun is spending money on her to make her feel better. Still, she loves the courage the shampoo gives her so she figures she’ll just use it for a couple more days and when this is all over, she knows she’ll be able to confess. 

__

Jinsol wakes up the next day with her fish plushie on one side and her teddy bear on the other and she smiles. She walks over to her mirror to greet the new body she’ll have for the day and she’s beautiful. She’s around the same height as her with cute bunny teeth. Jinsol feels a bit insecure, but the feeling goes away after a couple of seconds. 

She stays in her room until around lunchtime before she heads to the north-side dining hall. It’s not too crowded and she spots Jungeun immediately. They usually sit together at a two-person table and that’s where Jungeun is. 

Jinsol approaches her with newfound confidence, her courage is growing more and more with each day she uses the shampoo. “Hey! Jungeun, right?”

“Yeah? Do you know me?” Jungeun asks.

“Super well! Can I sit with you for lunch?”

Jungeun hesitates for a bit, eyeing the opposite side of the table, but she nods and gives Jinsol a smile, “sure!”

Jinsol sits down. She realizes she hasn’t gotten any food yet, but she misses her best friend and it’s nice to talk to her. 

“We’ve never met before, right?” 

“Yeah, wanna be friends from now on then?” Jinsol asks and it almost scares her how forward she’s getting, but it’s nice to have this type of courage. 

“Oh- sure! What’s your name?”

“Jinsol. Jung Jinsol.”

Jungeun scrunches her eyebrows together. “Jinsol?”

“Yeah. Anyways, I’ve liked you for a while now. It’s nice to be eating with you. I’m glad I can talk to you like this.” 

Jungeun laughs, she’s a little confused, but there’s something else in her eyes. “You’re really honest. I’m kind of jealous.”

“Jealous of me?” Jinsol questions. She wonders why Jungeun would be jealous.

Jungeun nods. “Yeah, I don’t think I could confess to someone so quickly.”

Jinsol smiles. It’s taken her 7 years to confess and she still hasn’t done it properly. If only Jungeun knew…

Still, Jinsol finds this to be the perfect opportunity to figure out if Jungeun is interested in anyone. 

“Do you like anyone here on campus?”

Jungeun pauses for a moment and shyly says, “well...maybe.” 

Jinsol is kind of shocked. She didn’t know Jungeun was interested in anyone. Maybe it’s new, Jinsol thinks. 

“Who? Maybe I could help.” Jinsol doesn’t know if she could really undergo helping the love of her life get with someone she’s interested in, but Jungeun is her best friend after all. 

“Jung Jinsol,” Jungeun says quickly and Jinsol sits still, unable to form words for a second.

“Wait, me?”

Jungeun laughs, “I’m just kidding. I just met you! But I’ve finished eating so I’m going to class now. See you around!” 

Jinsol watches Jungeun’s retreating figure and wishes Jungeun’s joke was real. 

__

That night, Jinsol gets a text from Jungeun saying how weird the past few days without her have been and says that if Jinsol isn’t better in a couple of days, Jungeun will personally fly a helicopter out to take her to the best hospital in all the lands. It’s a cute text and Jinsol feels loved. An hour later, Jungeun’s care package arrives, this time with an owl plushie, more soup, tea, and another note. 

"I feel like I’m writing letters to my husband who’s gone off to war. Please come back from war. I miss my best friend. The owl is because of that one time we were studying for finals and you laughed at me for pulling an all-nighter, but I aced the exam so :P. Okay, but seriously get better or I’m going to be so mad at you.  
-Jungeun"

Jinsol smiles. She can feel her love for Jungeun grow and she feels the courage building within her. She’ll be ready to confess as herself in a couple of days.

__

Jinsol continues to use the shampoo for a few more days and when she’s used it all up, the fairy appears once more. 

“Hi!” 

“Hi, shampoo fairy,” Jinsol says with a smile. Even though this is definitely the most ridiculous thing that has ever happened to her, she’s grateful.

“Do you need another bottle of magic shampoo?”

“No. I think I have the courage now.” Jinsol says with a smile and the shampoo fairy returns it. 

“Well, good luck then!” 

Today is her last day as someone else. She hasn’t seen Jungeun all day, but she knows the other girl has been busy with school work.

It’s been almost a week since she started using the shampoo and in just this short period of time, Jinsol has managed to gain enough courage to confess. She’s determined to walk straight to Jungeun tomorrow morning and tell her. All she has to do is sleep.

__

In the morning, Jinsol wakes up before her alarm clock, too excited to talk to Jungeun. She sends her a text saying she feels much better and that they should meet at the smoothie place, but Jungeun doesn’t respond. She figures she’ll get a smoothie for the both of them anyways and goes to Jungeun’s room to surprise her. Jungeun is probably doing her homework like a good student right now. 

When Jinsol gets to Jungeun’s door, she gathers the courage she’s been building for the past few days. This is it, Jinsol thinks. 

She knocks on the door and when she hears a faint “come in”, Jinsol opens the door to see a red-rimmed, puffy-eyed Jungeun laying in bed. 

“Oh my god, are you okay?” Jinsol puts the smoothies on Jungeun’s desk and rushes to sit beside Jungeun on her bed. 

Jungeun pushes Jinsol away from her and harshly asks, “what are you doing here?”

Jinsol flinches at Jungeun’s tone “What do you mean? I’m better now! I wanted to see you.” 

“Stop lying to me,” Jungeun says, turning her back on Jinsol and pulling the covers over her head. 

Jinsol wonders what she did to make Jungeun so angry, they haven’t really seen each other in almost a week. “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”

Jinsol tentatively lays a comforting hand on Jungeun’s shoulder, but Jungeun flings her arm off along with the covers. She gets up from her bed and stands. 

“What’s wrong? What’s wrong is that you’ve been lying to me all week. You weren’t really sick were you?”

Jinsol, shocked by the anger and sadness(?) in Jungeun’s voice, is stunned. “Well-”

“Were you?!”

“No, but-”

Jungeun cuts her off once more. “You left me to think you were on your deathbed or something and wouldn’t let me see you all week and then I find some random girl sleeping in your bed!”

“Wait what?” Jinsol asks. She doesn’t even know when Jungeun came into her room. 

“I went to check up on you last night and some random girl was in your bed. I didn’t even know you liked girls!” Jungeun throws her hands up in the air and starts pacing. “We’re best friends. I thought you would tell me something like that and- and even if you didn’t, I would think you would want to at least see me once this week.”

Jungeun stops pacing and sits on the edge of the bed, dropping her head into her hands. Jinsol doesn’t know what to do. Jungeun is crying and it’s all her fault. 

“I-”

“You know it’s funny,” Jungeun says with a bitter laugh as she looks at Jinsol. “All week, these random girls kept confessing to me and they all had your name.”

Jungeun shakes her head and pauses for a second, “I thought it was a sign that maybe I should confess to you and that maybe you felt the same way. I was going to confess last night. I didn’t care if you were snotty and infected with the black plague. I just wanted to be with you, but instead, you weren’t sick at all and you were with someone you’ve never even told me about!”

“Jungeun…”

“What?” Jungeun all but screams. 

“That was me,” Jinsol says and Jungeun looks at her incredulously. 

“No, it wasn’t. She had red hair.”

Jinsol carefully grabs Jungeun’s hands and gives them a tight squeeze.

“You can tell when I’m lying. Jungeun, that was me. This whole week, I’ve seen you. All those girls? That was me. I got this shampoo from a fairy,” Jungeun looks like she’s going to interrupt so Jinsol quickly fits in what she’s trying to say. “I know that sounds weird, but I’m telling the truth. It changed what I looked like every time I used it. It was meant to give me the courage to confess to you.”

Jungeun knits her eyebrows together. She knows that Jinsol is telling the truth, but she doesn’t understand. 

“I came here today to confess to you,” Jinsol says softly. 

“So...you like me?” Jungeun asks with a sniffle. 

Jinsol can’t believe how cute Jungeun looks. It almost makes her want to cry. 

“I love you, Jungeun. I’ve liked you since freshman year of high school and probably even before that, but now,” Jinsol pauses for a moment. “Now, I know that I love you.” 

“I love you too, Jinsol.” Jungeun says with a shy smile and pulls Jinsol in for a hug, “we’re both so dumb.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve liked you since junior year of high school. We could have been dating for like four years if we weren’t so stupid.” 

Jinsol smiles. They are pretty stupid. 

They break the hug and Jinsol musters up just a little bit more courage, “can I kiss you?”

“Of course you can, you stupid idiot,” Jungeun says, blushing hard. 

They both lean in and it’s short but so sweet. Years of pining coming to an end with a single kiss and all it took was a little bit of courage (and a fairy with magical shampoo).

**Author's Note:**

> And that's it! Hope you guys liked it! Come talk to me or tell me how it was or whatever   
> pls spare comment and kudos :]
> 
> Twitter: @lalalisoul  
> CC: https://curiouscat.me/lalalisoul


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